


And she broke your throne and she cut your hair

by Cheesecloth



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, Sonic Screwdriver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-18 21:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22333363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheesecloth/pseuds/Cheesecloth
Summary: "Prompt:It's such a small device; just how is he able to read the sonic?"
Kudos: 26
Collections: Aliens & Time Machines





	And she broke your throne and she cut your hair

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [aliens_and_time_machines_prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/aliens_and_time_machines_prompts) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> It's such a small device; just how is he able to read the sonic?

It’s one of those quiet moments that the Doctor doesn’t know whether or not to treasure.

Martha holds the Tardis’ main computer in her hands, gazing intently at the screen.

“Choose a destination yet Martha?” The Doctor wonders.

“Actually, I don’t think I can. Every time I focus on somewhere, the screen flitters a bit and it’s a whole other section of the sky.” Martha frowns. “It’s like the Tardis wants to choose our next destination.”

The Doctor grins upward. The old girl chooses their destinations often enough.

“Here,” the Doctor says once he’s reached his companion. “Let’s see if I can fix it.”

He takes out his trusty sonic screwdriver with flair. Martha rolls her eyes but she can’t stop her amused grin.

“How does that thing actually work, anyway?” Martha asks.

“Well…” The Doctor mumbles, concentrating, “I scan things. Big scanner, me. Scan just about everything if I can.”

“I get that.” Martha nods. “But how are you able to read the, er, readings?”

The Doctor glances at Martha and hisses at the screen. “Blast. She really does want to choose where we go next.”

The great blue box answers with a crude machine wheeze of her own. So the Doctor gets to work. He fumbles around the switches and levers and bangs a smoking confobulator with his hammer.

“Doctor?”

The Doctor turns distractedly to Martha, and she leans away from the hammer.

“Oh! Right!” The Doctor exclaims, and he tosses the hammer behind him to who-knows-where. “Time Lords are low-grade psychics. We can telepathically connect every now and then,” he looked away from Martha.

“You- what? You can read my mind?”

“No.” The Doctor braces himself against the Tardis’ dashboard. “I mean, yes, but I really don’t do it often. It’s like… you ever see Star Trek?”

“Yeah, it’s fantastic,” Martha remembers the days long past where her father still lived at home. She remembers sitting at his side while the telly was on his favorite show. They’d sit there for hours laughing at the Enterprise’s futuristic shenanigans.

“You remember Spock?” He makes the Vulcan salute with his hand, just for the hell of it. He quite liked the show too. It gave him hope for the future of humanity, even though he’s already been there. “He can telepathically connect through touch. And I can do that sometimes. But it’s a bit of a workout. It’s much easier to connect with my sonic. ’S why I do it all the time.”

Martha swings her head to peer at him. “What? The sonic’s got a mind?”

The Doctor smirks and shrugs jankily. He really is too skinny for words.

“I can read computers can’t I?”

Just then the Tardis jerks and Martha has to cling against the railings to keep upright. “What was that!”

“Guess we’ve arrived where the Tardis wants us to go,” the Doctor groaned, half tossed to the floor. He’s grinning widely though, so Martha isn’t too worried.

“So you can telepathically read 1’s and 0’s? Binary code?”

The Doctor got to his feet and flipped his sonic up in the air. He caught it and tucked it into his coat. The door of the Tardis opened up on its own, and they stared at each other.

Could this man really telepathically connect to computers, or was he just messing with Martha?

She doesn’t have the opportunity to ask.

He winks at her, and he’s out the door in a flash.

“Good old Doctor.” She laughs and follows him onto another adventure. She likes quiet moments as much as the next companion. But she’s got to admit, the times where they run are the best.

“Wait up!”


End file.
